Institutional Racism in Bureaucratic Decision‐Making: A Case Study in the Administration of Homelessness Law
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00163 |
| Author | Simon Halliday |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 27, NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER 2000
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 449–71
Institutional Racism in Bureaucratic Decision-Making:
A Case Study in the Administration of Homelessness Law
Simon Halliday*
This article reports findings from an ethnographic research project which
investigated the influence of judicial review experiences on the decision-
making processes of three heavily litigated local government agencies.
1
The research focused on the administration of homelessness law in local
government in England. However, the particular findings which emerged
from fieldwork and which are discussed in this article concern
institutional racism. `Institutional racism’, of course, is a much-used
and contested concept
2
and may refer to a number of sources of discrimi-
nation.
3
The aim of this article is both modest and particular. It presents a
case study of how systemic discrimination may be socially produced
within the bureaucratic processes of organizational decision-making.
Institutional racism has long been a subject of concern and enquiry in relation
to the operations of local government housing departments. Much of this has
focused on the ways in which allocations policies and local authorities’
operations of their policies produce discriminatory results. Institutional racism
has been found in terms of admissions to the housing waiting list
4
and
449
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1 S. Halliday, Judicial Review and Administrative Justice, unpublished Ph.D. thesis,
University of Strathclyde, 1999. For a brief summary of the findings, see S. Halliday,
‘The Influence of Judicial Review on Bureaucratic Decision-Making’ [2000] Public
Law 110–22.
2 D. Phillips, ‘The rhetoric of anti-racism’ in P. Jackson (ed.), Race and Racism: essays
in social geography (1987).
3 See, for example, Ginsberg’s typology of institutional racism: N. Ginsberg, ‘Racism
and Housing: Concepts and Reality’ in Racism and Anti-Racism, eds. P. Braham, A.
Rattansi, and R. Skellington (1992).
4 See, for example, J. Rex and R. Moore, Race, Community and Conflict (1967); W.
Daniel, Racial Discrimination in England (1968); D. Smith and P. Whalley, Racial
Minorities and Council Housing (1975).
* Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, University of Oxford,
Oxford OX2 6UD, England
I am grateful to The´re`se O’Donnell and Jenifer Ross who read and commented upon this
article in draft. Thanks are also due to Justeen Hyde and the Journal of Law and Society’s
anonymous reviewers.
allocations from the list.
5
Less is known about forms of institutional racism in
relation to local authorities’ homelessness functions. Some attention has been
given to the use of temporary accommodation for homeless people.
6
The
Commission for Racial Equality’s (‘CRE’) investigation of Tower Hamlets
7
made a finding of discrimination in relation to the length of time which
homeless Bangladeshi families had to wait in bed-and- breakfast for offers of
housing. There are also clear links between local authorities’ policies on
admissions to housing waiting lists and the need to use homelessness
legislation as a route to housing.
8
Members of ethnic minorities are also over-
represented amongst those who apply for housing as homeless people.
9
Consequently, attention has also focused on the discriminatory effects of
policies where homeless applicants were given only one offer of housing, but
waiting list applicants were offered more.
10
However, very little still is known
about how institutional racism may operate in the process of determining
applicants’ legal entitlement to housing under homelessness law. This issue
has been discussed speculatively.
11
There is, additionally, some interesting
data about the homelessness application process in Camden ’s report on racism
in its housing operations,
12
although a full investigation was not possible. To
date, therefore, there is very little empirical data about how institutional
450
5 See, for example, Smith and Whalley, id; A. Simpson, Stacking the Decks: a study of
race, inequality and council housing in Nottingham (1981); CRE, Race and Council
Housing in Hackney (1984); CRE, Race and Housing in Liverpool (1986); D.
Phillips, What Price Equality?: report on the allocation of GLC housing in Tower
Hamlets (1986); J. Henderson and V. Karn, Race, Class and State Housing (1987);
CRE, Homelessness and Discrimination (1988); London Borough of Camden’s
Housing Investigation Advisory Panel, Racism in Camden Housing (1988); C.
Forman, Spitalfields: a battle for land (1989); S. Jeffers and P. Hoggett, ‘Like
Counting Deckchairs on the Titanic: A Study of Institutional Racism and Housing
Allocations in Haringey and Lambeth’ (1995) 10 Housing Studies 325–44.
6 See, for example, J. Greve et al., Homelessness in London (1986).
7 CRE, op. cit. (1988), n. 5.
8
In Tower Hamlets, for example, 86 per cent of the homeless list comprised Bangladeshis
as opposed to 26 per cent on the waiting list (id., p. 38). Tower Hamlets operated a policy
which only permitted separated family members to be recognized on a housing waiting
list application if they were resident in the United Kingdom. 97.9% per cent of
applications which had family members discounted for this reason were Bangladeshi.
For a more general discussion, see M. MacEwen, Housing, Race and Law (1991).
9 See J. Greve, Homelessness in Britain (1991); MacEwen, id.; Jeffers and Hoggett, op.
cit., n. 5.
10 See, for example, Phillips, op. cit., n. 5. This point is also discussed in Jeffers and
Hoggett, id.
11 See, for example, appendix C of CRE, op. cit. (1998); S. Smith, The Politics of Race
and Residence (1989) ch. 4; MacEwen, op. cit., n. 8, ch. 7; N. Ginsberg and S.
Watson, ‘Issues of Race and Gender Facing Housing Policy’ in Housing Policy in the
1990s, ed. J. Burchill (1992); S. Rahilly, ‘Housing for the homeless: the provisions of
Social Welfare and Family Law 237–50.
12 L.B. of Camden, op. cit., n. 5.
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